Category > Manga
The manga tech start up Orange Inc recently raised over 19 million USD in funding for machine translated manga. We were quite intrigued because machine translation hasn't always worked out in the past for manga titles. One recent example was the Ranking of Kings Manga that had to be pulled because the quality of the translations were so poor. What's worse was the lack of quality control from everyone involved in the publishing of the title.
As we were curious, we reached out to some professional translators to ask their opinions on the current state of translation.
Read More... | Souce: Otaku News
Hayao Miyazaki's The Boy and the Heron has won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film 2024.
The highly coveted gold statue is considered the biggest award in Hollywood circles. Miyazaki is not only the first and only Japanese director to have won in this category, but he has also won it twice! Spirited Away won the Oscar in 2002.
Miyazaki's other movies Howl's Moving Castle and The Wind Rises have been nominated in the past, but did not win. While other Ghibli movies The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, When Marnie Was There and The Red Turtle have all been nominated previously too.
This is an exceptional achievement and marks another award on the shelf for The Boy and the Heron, which also won a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA.
Souce: The Oscars 2024
Category > Current Affairs
It's been announced today on X (the site formally known as Twitter) and on the official Dragon Ball site that Akira Toriyama passed away on 1st March 2024 due to acute subdural hematoma. He was 68 years old.
It's a massive understatement to call Toriyama a legend, the popularity and influence of the Dragon Ball Series by itself is huge. He's also had success with other projects including the artwork and character design for video games Dragon Quest and Chrono Trigger. The up coming game based on his work Sand Land is due to be released on multiple formats this April too.
You can read the official statement from the Dragon Ball Official Website, BBC News, The Guardian also pretty much every news outlet has an obituary of some kind.
Akira Toriyama work was iconic and his passing will surprise many fans around the world. As news of his death spreads around internet many industry professionals are posting condolences and also admit that it's because of him they first got into manga and anime in the first place.
Souce: Dragon Ball Offical
Category > Events
Fans of Kabuki, Shakespeare and Queen are in for a real treat as Sadler's Wells, A Night at the Kabuki is to be streamed live on Friday 17 November 2023 and available to watch until Thursday 30 November 2023.
A Night at the Kabuki, the acclaimed Japanese stage production inspired by Romeo & Juliet set to the songs of Queen, Transported from the original setting of 14th century Verona, Italy, this production takes place in late 12th century Japan at the start of the Samurai era where the rivalry between the Minamoto and Taira clans intensifies after their young heirs Romeo and Juliet fatefully fall in love.
The stream will be available globally as is priced at JPY ¥4,000/£21.64/€24.90. Visit Stagecrowd for the livestream on Friday 17th November at 03.00 GMT (12:00 JST) - the recording will be available until Thursday 30th November 14.59 GMT (23.59 JST). You'll be able to watch the stream live and then as many times as you like while it's available until the Thursday deadline.
Read More... | Souce: A Night At the Kabuki
Category > Current Affairs
This week it was announced that renowned manga artist Leiji Matsumoto had died on 13th February 2023 of acute heart failure in a Tokyo hospital, at the age of 85.
You may have encountered his highly influential works such as Galaxy Express 999, Queen Emeraldas, Space Pirate Captain Harlock or even Interstella 5555 his collaboration with Daft Punk.
You could read the BBC Obituary or equally well written Financial Times Obituary , but the best write up we've found is on Anime Limited's Blog it's written by anime expert Helen McCarthy, who has written numerous books on anime including a collection of Essays on Leiji Matsumoto.
Souce: Anime Limited
Category > Anime
The good folks from Anime Limited have just sent us some news that they have the rights to distribute the Suzume soundtrack. Makoto Shinkai's latest movie is due to hit cinemas in the UK and Ireland this April 2023. The director joins forces again with RADWIMPS to create the soundtrack for this film and also brings in Kazuma Jinnouchi.
Anime Limited are currently taking pre-orders for the Japanese Import edition on vinyl. It's currently priced at £59.99 (on offer from £69.99). An official western version is due for release sometime early Q3 2023.
You can also stream/download the soundtrack from many popular official streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music.
Although an primarily an anime company, Anime Limited are also a record label with an excellent catalogue of anime soundtracks.
Read More... | Souce: Anime Limited
Being a fan of anime, manga and Japanese stuff in general it's always good to find a great source of content. Most fans will hunt on DVDs and blu-rays for those extra features, read magazines and articles and various bonus features included in books and so on. They'll even read websites like this one, but one resource that we find that is frequently overlooked is NHK World.
NHK is the national state broadcaster for Japan. NHK World is it's international arm. It's content is available in a selection of languages including either dubbed into English or in Japanese with English Subtitles. The service is free to access and is available on a wide range of satellite and cable providers in the US, UK and further afield. You can also watch it free and legally on the website or app that's offered on many platforms including iOS (iPhone and iPad), Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android, Roku and more. You can watch the live broadcast or the video on demand service.
A lot of the content there is excellent for anime and manga fans.
Read More... | Souce: Otaku News
Category > Anime
Highly anticipated new anime series Trigun Stampede hits streaming service Cruchyroll from Saturday 7th January 2023. We were lucky to get a sneak peak of the series and watch the first episode before it's released. So is Vash the same? Is the CGI animation any good? Well read our spoiler free review to find out!
Read More... | Souce: Otaku News
Category > Features
When The Royal Shakespeare Company announced that they were doing a live action stage play of My Neighbour Totoro, we got very excited. It had all the hallmarks of something great! It was done in collaboration with The Royal Shakespeare Company, Improbable and Nippon TV. Joe Hisaishi, composer and long term Studio Ghibli collaborator, is the executive producer tasked by Totoro director Hayao Miyazaki to bring his much loved and highly influential film to the stage. If this wasn't enough, Jim Henson's Creature Shop was brought in to create all the puppets for this production!
Read More... | Souce: Otaku News
Category > Anime
The good folks from international auctioneers and valuers Bonhams have sent us details of their latest online sale The World Of Anime is set to run from 24th January until 2nd February 2022. The auction features various anime classics included Sailor Moon, Urusei Yatsura, Ranma 1/2, Cardcaptor Sakura, Cardcaptor Sakura, One Piece, Evangelion and many more. The sale is being headlines by Studio Ghibli cels including some key scenes from Kiki's Delivery Service and Totoro.
Anime cel auctions are uncommon with traditional auctioneers, but unlike other online avenues you know that they've taken the time to verify the items on sale are authentic.
Highlighting the auction is a Kiki's Delivery service production cel featuring Kiki flying with Jiji. Bonhams estimates this cel will sell for anything between $15,000 - $25,000 (USD). In the same price bracket they've got a cel of Totoro asleep!
We'll be very interested to see what happens with all the cels up for auction. Some have already got some bids in place between the asking prices, while others have yet to gain any attention. As with any auction it's always the last 60 seconds where things get really interesting!
Read More... | Souce: Bonhams
Category > Anime
In a change to our regular scheduled news, we bring you an academic article titled Steeped in History: Princess Mononoke. It delves into historical context of the much loved Studio Ghibli film focusing on how social class, race and religion are depicted. It also looks into the archaeological record, and written sources to understand how the film conveys these aspects while maintaining its fantasy element and pro-environmental message.
Read More... | Souce: Otaku News
Category > Anime
Localising manga is more than just buying the rights and getting it translated, there's also sorts of factors to consider to bring it to market. While people often consider the translation there's another part of the localisation process to consider, the letterer! All the words you read on the page aren't just magically put into place, there's actually a lot of art and craft to lettering a manga page. So we thought we'd catch up with a manga letterer to find out more about the process.
Sara Linsley is a software developer and comic book letterer living in NYC, she has done lettering for manga including Sweat and Soap, Spoof on Titan, LDK and Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches. Recently she's also just released a font of her own intended for manga use! We thought we'd catch up with Sara over e-mail to find out how letterer can make or break a good localisation.
Read More... | Souce: Otaku News
Category > Culture
Readers in academic circles may be interested to hear about this call for chapter proposals. It's for a book devoted to archival research in anime and manga fandom before the year 2000. Co-edited by anime and manga expert Helen McCarthy and Dr. Darren-Jon Ashmore, Professor of Anthropology, Yamanashi Gakuin University.
Helen McCarthy tells us "Independent scholars are welcome to submit, you don't have to be attached to an institution, anime and manga don't have to be your primary areas of study if you are. We're really keen to get new thinking and rigorous archival research"
Details can be found on https://cfplist.com/CFP/25594.
Souce: CFP List
Category > Anime
We're currently really enjoying anime studio Science SARU's latest show Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!. It's a delightful series that really captures of the passion, joy and excitement of being anime fan. Not only that, but it enthusiastically explains what makes certain anime titles so great.
Along the for the imaginative ride it takes us on we were keen to find out more. The good folks at anime streaming service Crunchyroll helped us by sending us an interview with Eunyoung Choi who is producer and co-founder of Science SARU. They've even let us publish the interview ahead of their news letter.
Read More... | Souce: Crunchyroll
Category > Anime
MCM Comic Con London and Anime Limited frequently team up to bring great guests to the event. MCM Comic Con London October 2019 was no exception, with not one, but two guests of honour - anime directors Shinichiro Watanabe (best known for Cowboy Bebop) and Motonobu Hori a rising star in the anime industry.
We caught up with the two directors at MCM Comic Con London to talk about their latest project the fanatic Carole & Tuesday.
Read More... | Souce: Otaku News
Category > Manga
Fans of cat manga can rejoice as publisher Dark Horse are re-releasing the classic What's Michael? as a special fat cat collection.
The manga was originally released in English by Dark Horse in 1997 and has been out of print for a long time, with many fans thought a reprint of Makoto Kobayashi's manga in English unlikely. We're massive fans of the comic antics of this cat manga as it blends slice of life tales (or should that be tails?!) along with amusing fantasy incorporating cats. The light hearted title is due out in the US on January 29, 2020.
You can pre-order it from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.
We've also been told that translator Zack Davisson is involved in this project and will write introductions for each volume. Zack is not only a manga translator, but a cat fan so it an appropriate choice for this series.
Why is the cat called Michael? Well Michael is used in Japanese as causal slang for cat, kind of like moggy.
Read More... | Souce: Dark Horse
Category > Anime
Mamoru Hosoda's latest movie Mirai has been nominated for an Oscar for Animated Feature Film. It made the the list of final nominees which also includes Incredibles 2, Isle of Dogs, Ralph Breaks the Internet and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
Mirai's nomination is significant as it's the first anime film to be nominated that isn't from Studio Ghibli. Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away was nominated in 2002 and won the Oscar, being to date the only animated movie from Japan to win the prize.
Read More... | Souce: The Oscars Website
Category > Events
Readers in LA who are fans of renowned creepy-kawaii manga artist Junko Mizuno will want to head over to Gallery Nucleus on Saturday December 17th, 2016 for the opening reception of her new exhibition. Junko Mizuno's second Japan-themed art show will run from December 17th, 2016 to January 8, 2017.
Admission to the opening reception is free, booking is required. As always with popular events, we advise booking early to avoid disappointment.
For those looking to find out more we interviewed Junko Mizuno last time she was in London.
Read More... | Souce: Junko Mizuno
Category > Retail
While taking a day off from being an otaku I was browsing the stalls at the London Coffee Festival looking for ways to feed my never ending caffeine addiction. You never really switch off from being an otaku, as I stumbled upon a Japanese tea company Ocha & Co who are promoting themselves to coffee connoisseurs.
Many of our readers are fans of Japanese matcha powder and loose leaf Japanese tea, so naturally I was curious. The staff at Ocha & Co explained that they source directly from one tea producer in Shizuoka. The organic certified tea is then shipped quickly to them and then on again directly to the customer. They're keen to get the tea directly from the plantation to your cup in the shortest possible time. You can also buy their matcha and teas direct from Japan using Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.
Souce: Ocha & Co
Category > Manga
We've already published details about Titan Comic's up-coming release of the Sherlock Manga. As news is spreading we wanted to know more details about the actual release. So we go it touch with Titan Comics editor Andrew James to talk about the release.
Read More... | Souce: Titan Comics
Category > Culture
Fans of Japanese music will want to tune into NHK World this weekend to watch Entertainment Nippon's coverage Asian Kung-Fu Generation.
The band has been running for 20 years, you may know their music from the hugely popular anime show Erased. Entertainment Nippon is due to air Saturday 5th March 2016 at 4:10, 11:10, 16:10 and 22:10 (UTC).
NHK World is a free to air station, and is broadcast dubbed into English or with English subtitles.
NHK World is available in the UK on the following
Sky Channel 507
Freestat Channel 209
Virgin Media Channel 625
They offer free live streaming if you don't have a service able to watch it.
It's also widely available around the world, so could be available in your region.
Read More... | Souce: NHK World
Category > Manga
Fans of a certain Baker Street Detective will be very pleased to hear that comic publisher Titan have announced that they'll be publishing the Sherlock Manga in the UK and US. Comic Book Resources revealed that Titan Comics announced at ComicsPro retailer summit that Sherlock: A Study in Pink will debut in June 2016.
The officially licensed Sherlock manga was published by Kadokawa Comics in Japan in 2012 in Young Ace magazine. It was published as a tankobon (standalone book) in Japanese in 2013. The manga closely follows the original BBC Sherlock episode featuring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.
As of yet, it's not clear if Titan will be publishing the manga in it's original Japanese right to left format or if they'll flip it.
Souce: Comic Book Resources
Category > Features
Whether I'm reviewing or not, when I go in to watch a new feature film, I try to read up on it as little as possible. With Miss Hokusai, I had only seen the short Japanese trailer (on purpose, so I wouldn't understand everything), and later skimmed the first few paragraphs of the production notes, handed to me when I walked into the screening. What I was expecting was something of a behind-the-scenes, biographical approach to Katsushika Hokusai's life, through his daughter's eyes. But instead I got something a little different.
Read More... | Souce: Otaku News
Category > Events
US based readers who can get to San Francisco should get ready for the 2013 J-POP Summit Festival. It's set to run in Japan Town in San Francisco on Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th July 2013.
Get ready for weekend of Japanese Harajuku Fashion Culture, street styles and kawaii!
Read More... | Souce: J-POP Summit Festival
Category > Culture
J-Pop fans who can access NHK World will want to tune in for Johnnys' World: Top of the J-Pops.
The documentary focuses on Johnny Kitagawa of talent agency Johnny's Entertainment. The talent agency represents Tsuyoshi Domoto of Kinki Kids and Hey! Say! Jump!.
It'll be broadcast on NHK World on:
Saturday 26th January 2013 - 23:10 (UTC)
Sunday 27th January 2013 - 3:10/ 7:10/ 11:10/ 15:10/ 19:10 (UTC)
NHK World broadcasts content in English and is free to access. It's available in many countries.
In the UK if you have Sky you can access NHK World on Channel 507. If you've got FreeSat you can access it on channel 209.
Failing that, you can also watch the show on-line on the NHK Website, JIB TV, or on the NHK World App on iOS Devices (iPhone, iPad, etc) and Android Devices.
Souce: NHK World
We've received news from US Anime Distributor Sentai Filmworks that they've licensed Grave of the Fireflies. The Ghibli classic is emotional story of the cold realities of war, and often forgotten victims, the children.
Sentai Filmworks will begin digital distribution of the title this winter and a digital restored DVD will be released next year.
Read More... | Souce: Sentai Filmworks
Category > Events
The AM2 Convention in Anaheim in California is set to return in 2012 with more guests.
Read More... | Souce: AM2 Convention
US based readers who can receive Mnet will want to tune in July 5th 2011 at 9:30pm ET/PT to catch Culture Japan which stars expert otaku Danny Choo. Each week Danny will explore different aspects of Japanese pop culture.
You can also catch the show on Crunchy Roll.
Read More... | Souce: Mnet
Category > Events
Manga fans in Toronto Canada are in for a treat on the first weekend in May, where Natsume Ono will be the featured guest at The Toronto Comic Arts Festival 2011.
The event is set to run on Saturday May 7th 2011 and Sunday May 8th 2011 with free admission. This will be Natsume Ono first ever public appearance in North America.
You may know her from such works as not simple, Ristorante Paradiso, Gente, and House of Five Leaves.
Read More... | Souce: Toronto Comic Arts Festival
Category > Events
Fans of the music from Final Fantasy are in for a treat next year as the venues and dates for The Distant World music from Final Fantasy have been announced.
Returning to Chicago! First Ever Distant Worlds
"Marathon Final Fantasy Concert" June 26, 2011!
Tickets on sale now!
Distant Worlds in London!
November 5, 2011 at Royal Albert Hall!
Tickets on sale Dec 17, 2010!
Distant Worlds in Australia!
April 15 & 16, 2011 at Sydney Opera House!
Concert Tickets on sale now!
Meet and greet tickets on sale Dec. 17, 2010!
Souce: Distant Worlds
Category > Events
NY based fans of Japanese Cosplay Singing Maids will want to head over to the anime and Japanese Cultural event PJ "mini" Pop to see Reni Mimura . The event is set to run on Sunday May 23rd 2010 from 12:00 until 6:00pm at the The Dwyer Cultural Center in South Harlem.
Read More... | Souce: Reni\'s Blog
Category > Fandom
Contributing writer for G-FAN magazine Armand Vaquer has sent us details about a new travel guide he's written called The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan.
The travel guide is due out next month and will retail for $15 a copy.
Read More... | Souce: Armand Vaquer\'s Blog
Category > Events
Fans of Akiba culture in NY should head over to Top Tunes Karaoke Bar on October 4th 2009 where Japanese Copsplay Singer Reni will perform anime songs and J-Pop.
Read More... | Souce: Reni
Category > Fandom
The good folks at MTV Iggy (which is focused on breakthrough music and pop-culture from around the globe) have sent us details of their new feature - Otaku Culture.
They've got a couple of videos up from Otakon 2009 in Baltimore. It includes some otaku steampunk culture along with a video on ball jointed dolls. They've also got details of J-Rockers VAMPS, and plenty more to explore too.
Souce: MTV Iggy
Category > Events
We've received a press release that'll interest our readers in New York City, or who can get to the big apple on March 1st 2009. Top Tunes will be hosting a Japanese Maid Show.
Read More... | Souce: Reni\'s Blog
Category > Culture
PiQ's July issue to be its last.
Read More... | Souce: Anime News Network
Category > Art
The nice people at Abrams have sent us details of a new book they're publishing Hokusai, the artist who created one of the most famous bits of Japanese artwork, often called Tsunami by Hokusai or The Under the wave off Kanagawa. The book is printed excellent quality paper. At £15.95 it's superb value for money especially considering it's all in colour. It's due out 30th April 2007. We only wish the book was bigger so that they could print the artwork larger, but I guess we've been spoiled by looking at anime artbooks all these years. The book has some great examples of Japanese culture in the period and come highly recommend by the Otaku News crew.
Read More... | Souce: Abrams Books
Category > Art
The good folks at Abrams have sent us details of a new book they're publishing about the groundbreaking artist Hokusai. The book contains lots of lovely selection artwork from Hokusai and is a great example of the variety of work he did. The book is well worth £10, for curiosity or academic interests. It hits the shops on 30th April 2007.
Read More... | Souce: Abrams Books
Category > Current Affairs
While attending talks between US President George W Bush and Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, the two leaders will pay a special visit to a very American home. They will be visiting Graceland the famous house of rock and roll legend Elvis Presley.
According to BBC News this is widely seen as a thank you gesture from Mr Bush to Mr Koizumi, who is known to be a huge Elvis fan. Mr Koizumi has even released a CD with a selection of his favourite Elvis songs. The Japanese PM is such a dedicated fan he helped fund a statue of the King which now stands in Harajuku.
Souce: BBC News
Category > Manga
Fed up of reading ill informed badly researched articles by people who think their anime and manga experts we're please to have discovered this article by manga guru Frederik L. Schodt, he's written several excellent books on manga and even translated both Ghost in The Shell manga with Toren Smith (in otherwords, unlike the many bandwagon jumpers out there, he knows his stuff). The article on the Japan Times Online website focuses on American students using manga to learn Japanese.
Schodt highlights that since they're highly addictive and a lot better than forcing adults to repeat infantile passages in textbooks they make a great learning tool. The article has a lot more information, so go and read it! ^_^
Souce: Japan Times Online
Category > Websites
The people over at AOL have just sent details of their new Japanese Pop Station. It seems that AOL Radio listeners enjoyed the Video Game Scores station so much that AOL have added a Japanese Pop station due to popular demand!
Read More... | Souce: AOL
Category > Culture
We've just got details in from Ridgeback Press, apparently they will be launching Samurai History Papers, a quarterly newsletter from Romulus Hillsborough (whose research on the history of the Meiji Restoration spans over twenty years). It focuses on the facts behind many samurai anime series, such as the Shinsengumi (central to Peacemaker Kurogane and Rurouni Kenshin).
Read More... | Souce: Ridgeback Press
Category > Press Releases
Washington Otaku will be pleased to know that the Japanese Language Center will be running a course that focuses on learning Japanese by reading manga!
Read More... | Souce: Japanese Language Center